The Football Player's Unknown Children

01

|Scarlett's POV|

Today is Braden's college graduation, I am so proud of him. He is going into the NFL though so he won't be in Oregon with me anymore. He's going to be playing football for The Green Bay Packers. I don't know how the long distance thing is going to work, but I just have to believe it will and we will be okay. I'm terrified of not seeing him every day. He leaves for Wisconsin in a week. Every time I think about it I want to cry.

|At graduation|

It was the middle of the ceremony when all of the sudden I felt the need to throw up. I ran out of the auditorium and threw up multiple times into the closest trashcan. This wasn't the first time I had randomly thrown up either. It is probably just the flu though. I just have to get through the Graduation Ceremony. When I returned to the auditorium, Braden's older sister, Ashley Reynolds, asked if I was okay. I just nodded at her and turned back to the ceremony.

Ashley is 26 years old and she is married. Her husband's name is Daniel Reynolds. They live in Maine because of Daniel's job, but Ashley came back to Oregon for Braden's graduation.

After a couple minutes of being back in there, they called Braden's name. After his degree got handed to him, his sister and I started to cheer. His parents weren't here because they don't care about him graduating. His parents are terrible and always have been when it comes to their children. They were never home when Braden and Ashley were growing up.

Anyways after Braden, a lot more people went, but I didn't really pay attention to any of them. Finally, it was over! Thank goodness! When Braden came and found us he hugged his sister and then he came up to me, picked me up and spun me around. After he set me down I had to run to the trash can because I had to throw up. After I was done throwing up I took a piece of gum out of my purse and put it in my mouth and then walked back over to Ashley and Braden. "Are you okay?" Braden asked me, with a look of concern on his face, once I got back to them. "Yeah, I think so. It's probably just the flu." I replied, but Ashley looked at me with this look like she knew something was up. She mouthed to me, "We will talk later." I just nodded my head and went with Braden to go talk to his football buddies. He was the only one out of all of them that was going on to the NFL.

I really just tuned out his conversations. I kept thinking about what Ashley wanted to talk to me about all the way up until it was time to head to Braden's celebration dinner.

|Celebration dinner|

Ashley had to leave early. She had to catch the next plane back to Maine. Her son, Levi, was in the hospital. His babysitter gave him peanuts. He's deathly allergic.

Since Ashley had to go back to Maine, it is just Braden and me now. We were eating in a comfortable silence when Braden said, "we need to talk." I stopped chewing my food as soon as I heard those words, I don't like where this conversation is headed. Those words are never the beginning of a good conversation.

After a moment I just finished chewing my bit of food and said, "what do we need to talk about?" "Us." He said with a frown, and I knew I wouldn't like this conversation. "Okay. Talk." I said biting my lip. "I am moving to Wisconsin and you are going to be here in Oregon finishing college." He said. "Yeah," I said. "I just think geography isn't in our favor. Plus, I really need to experience things and on my own. I think we should break up." By the time he finished saying that I was starting to tear up.

I was determined to maintain my dignity though, so I said "Okay. I guess six years meant nothing, but let me make one thing clear. If we do this, you don't call me, don't text me, you know what? How about you don't ever contact me again." I said calmly and then got up and left.

My apartment wasn't that far away, so I just walked. I sobbed as I walked. Strangers looked at me funny, but I eventually reached my apartment. I dropped my purse on the counter after I locked the door. I walked to my room took off my shoes and dress. I laid down on my bed and sobbed. I eventually ran out of tissues and just used my comforter.

After what felt like years of crying, even though it was probably only an hour, I stopped. I decided to get over myself so I got up and went to the bathroom. I took a nice, relaxing shower. I looked in the mirror after I was dressed and I still looked like a raccoon. Makeup was everywhere. This needed to be fixed ASAP so I went to grab my makeup wipes out of the cabinet. I was reaching for them when I stopped. My eyes landed on the unopened box of tampons and I realized, I'm late!